


The Neighbourhood Sniper

by winterlace



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-01
Updated: 2014-08-01
Packaged: 2018-02-11 07:35:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2059455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterlace/pseuds/winterlace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>But she’s nothing, if not tenacious, which is probably why she’s here in Avengers Tower as opposed to where she’s supposed to be, dying from boredom in some sort of soul sucking lecture at college. </i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>  <i>“I don’t accept that as an answer.” She replies with a tone of superiority and smirks when Clint just rolls his eyes.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Neighbourhood Sniper

**Author's Note:**

> I had a scene. No one else was going to write it into something. So I did. I apologise if anyone is OOC, first time writing Marvel and I'm not super familiar with Kate.

She grins brightly at Clint when the call from Captain America comes in.

He doesn’t even look at her, he just says “No.”

He must have practiced his tone of finality, maybe in the mirror in the morning. But she’s nothing, if not tenacious, which is probably why she’s here in Avengers Tower as opposed to where she’s supposed to be, dying from boredom in some sort of soul sucking lecture at college. 

“I don’t accept that as an answer.” She replies with a tone of superiority and smirks when Clint just rolls his eyes.

“Don’t embarrass me.” Was the only thing he says to her before they leave.

She wants to say something about how she is not the most embarrassing person out of the two of them because she had witnessed Clint eating cereal for dinner the past four nights but frankly she was happy to be going along for this mission and didn’t want to accidently piss Clint off enough that he changed his mind.

It probably wouldn’t stop her anyway.

Meeting Captain America was something else entirely.

He was taller than she expected. She wasn’t even sure how that was possible but he was taller and she was pretty sure he could crush her with one bicep and daaaammnnn that shoulder to waist ratio? Nuts. Like an upside down triangle. A Dorito. She breezed past the fact that he looked at her with the clearest expression of ‘who the hell is she?’ and Clint just shakes his head.

“I picked up a stray.” He says forlornly.

“I resent the notion that you think that I’m the stray in this relationship.” She quips. 

“Damn son…” says the other handsome fella that wasn’t Captain America.

“Kate.” She says and proffers her hand. He takes it with a warm but calloused hand, smiling sincerely and replies with “Sam.”

She likes people with calloused hands. She could never quite trust people with soft hands.

“We could probably use her,” says Clint reluctantly, “this base you want to annihilate is on the large side, an extra pair of eyes would be useful… and she’s a halfway decent shot.”

“Halfway decent shot my arse, I’m just as good as you… maybe even better.”

Clint doesn’t bother to argue with her.

Basically they’re going in to flatten a HYDRA base. Well… that’s pretty much all they’ll tell her. She’s okay with that; she just wants to shoot things.

And mostly that’s how it happens. She and Clint pick off all the outsiders while Steve and Sam knock off whoever’s inside, grab whatever it is they’ve gone in for, and set the charges. It’s smooth sailing until… things go slightly awry.

Steve and Sam are emerging from the bunker, guns up; Clint’s picked off a stray on the left and Kate’s climbing down the fire escape of her abandoned building only to have a strong roundhouse kick come out of no where and knock her off to the side. 

She grabs the side rail before she falls to an almost certain broken bone of some variety and she curses herself and her idiocy; she can’t even believe she had been so epically stupid. 

She struggles to grab the knife strapped to her leg before her assailant can reach her when she hears the shot go off followed by the heavy thunk of dead weight falling back against the metal.

Pulling and twisting, she drags herself up and stares at him. Eyes open and blank, a clean, neat hole indicates the entry of the bullet at the right temple. She doesn’t bother to look at the exit wound; she already knows it would be a mess. She can see the blood dripping through the metal mesh to the ground.

They’re waiting for her just outside the base.

“I didn’t know you brought a gun.” She says to Clint.

“I didn’t.” He replies confused.

“So you took him out?” She turns to Sam but he looks just as confused as Clint and her stomach is sinking.

“Took who out?”

She looks back at the shadow of the sprawled out body on the fire escape. “Damn, I guess we have a friendly neighbourhood sniper then.” Trying to dampen the slight edge of hysteria that’s creeping into her voice that some random saved her from her foolishness. She’s still alert enough to catch the brief glance between Steve and Sam.

“Wait…” She breathes in desperately “Did you know there was going to be someone else here?”

“He’s not always… we can’t talk about this out here in the open.” Steve says suddenly, glancing around.

“Thanks man! A little warning next time.” Her punch barely lands on his shoulder before another shot goes off, missing them and landing just behind her, a puff of dust marking where the bullet goes into the dirt. Her whole body stills like a cornered animal.

“Uhhh. The friendly neighbourhood sniper doesn’t like you touching Steve.” Says Sam with an edge of amusement in his voice while Clint just rolls his eyes and groans.

“Dude must have a great sense of humour.” She moves her hand slowly to face the general direction of the location the shot came from. Offering a middle finger salute as a reply.

“Let’s get out of here before she gets herself killed… or I kill her.” Clint grunts already walking away.

Four hours later and stuffed full of pizza, she sits on the balcony and scans the buildings surrounding them.

“It’s cold out here.” It’s Sam and he drops into the seat beside her.

“No shit.”

“So you and Clint…”

She shrugs. “He was in a bit of jam… I saved his arse.”

“So now you’re living the superhero life?”

“Better than the college life. My degree was sucking what was left of my soul out of me. What about you, huh? You and your ominous and noticeably absent sniper friend?” She challenged.

“You hear about what happened in DC?”

“Yeah. Who didn’t? Apart from those people living under rocks.”

“I was there.”

“You’re the dude they’re calling the Falcon, aren’t you?”

“They?” he replied, confused.

“You have internet fangirls dude. Not as many as Cap, but definitely a dedicated rabid fan base.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“Roll with it. Price of being a superhero. So… friendly…” she pauses, thinking. “… or not so-friendly neighbourhood sniper?”

“He was there too. He’s…” he pauses and she can see him considering. “… an old friend of Steve’s but you… shit happens. I don’t think I can tell you more than that.”

“I get that a lot.” She already knew from eavesdropping on the conversation that Clint, Sam and Steve thought she wasn’t listening to that whoever was following them was someone once known as the Winter Soldier. Someone who had fished Steve out of some sort near death experience. Someone who Sam claimed was an old friend but as far as she could tell, had been on the other side for a little while, though, clearly Steve and Sam weren’t a hundred percent on which side this dude was playing now. Though apparently they were happy enough to let him rock up whenever he wanted to take out stray HYDRA agents.

Whatever. There was way too many feels here. 

“Kate you should head to bed. We’re gonna roll out early.” She hears Clint call from inside, she rolls her eyes at Sam.

“Sure thing, dad.”

She knows that they will have top-secret superhero chats for at least another hour; while they think she’s asleep, safely down the hall from them… apparently oblivious. So when she leaves Steve and Sam’s hotel room, she doesn’t head down to the room she’s sharing with Clint, instead she leaves the hotel entirely, scanning the rooftops above her, locating the building she had spied from the balcony.

She pulls herself up the fire escape and examines the rooftop. There’s a ratty blanket laid out on the far side, abandoned along with a pair of binoculars. She walks over and looks over the edge; there was a perfect angle into the hotel room Steve and Sam shared.

“Are you a voyeur as well as the friendly neighbourhood sniper?” she wonders aloud. There’s suddenly the scuffing sound of a shoe against concrete and she whips around to stare accusingly into the darkness. There’s the glint of metal in the shadows of the building rooftop access. 

“Just wanted to say thank you for saving my life or whatever. I dunno if you’re cool with that but I don’t like being in debt to people so… ummm… thanks?” She says into the shadows.

“He didn’t send you?” comes the gruff voice.

“Which he do you mean? And no on all three counts regardless. Anyway…” She shakes her head… this is weirder than she anticipated. “I brought you a sandwhich.” She pulls out the paper bag and gently places it on the tatty blanket. She thinks about mentioning to Steve about leaving a new one out or something. “You might notice a number written on the bag. It’s mine, by the way, if you need help or something. I don’t like owing favours but you know, you kinda saved me… so…” She shrugs and backs away towards the fire escape. It was probable that she needed a break from all this… superhero shit anyway. She wouldn’t want to admit that maybe she got too deep, too fast but it kind of felt like it.

She doesn’t look back when she climbs down the fire escape, nor as she walks back into the hotel. 

-

He burns the paper bag with a lighter as he eats the sandwich she left behind. 

But he’s memorized the number.


End file.
